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JUST IN: Steve Zimmer concedes in LAUSD board race, Kelly Gonez leading in District 6
*UPDATED LA Unified school board President Steve Zimmer conceded Tuesday night in a speech before supporters in Mar Vista. “There’s no sugar-coating this,” he said. In an interview outside his campaign party right before the speech, Zimmer told LA School Report that he knew he had lost the election but will not be calling Nick...
By Mike Szymanski | May 16, 2017
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Melvoin, Gonez ahead in mail-in balloting
The first election results in the LA Unified school board race are in, for mail-in ballots. Nick Melvoin leads Steve Zimmer, 60 percent to 40 percent. Kelly Gonez leads Imelda Padilla, 52 percent to 48 percent. Going into Tuesday, 116,817 of the 866,567 ballots issued had been mailed in and processed, or 13.5 percent. That...
By LA School Report | May 16, 2017
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LAUSD board race balloting: a few complaints but no official investigations
As balloting continued Tuesday for two seats on the LA Unified school board, a few complaints about polling issues in the District 4 race surfaced on neighborhood social media groups, but the Los Angeles City Clerk’s office said no calls had been received about board race problems. As of 3 p.m., only one investigation had...
By LA School Report | May 16, 2017
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Here’s what LAUSD could buy with the $14.5 million in outside money that’s poured into the school board race
A year’s worth of arts education, or two textbooks for every high school student, or a crisp $20 bill for every student enrolled in every LA Unified school from early ed to high school, including at every independent public charter school. That’s some of what LA Unified could have bought with the massive amount of outside...
By Mike Szymanski | May 15, 2017
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Your voting primer to Tuesday’s LAUSD school board election
*UPDATED Have you heard there’s an election this Tuesday? Most likely, if you’re a regular reader of LA School Report, you certainly have, but it’s probably also likely that your friends and neighbors — or the parents you’re dropping off your kids with — have no idea there’s an election. What’s on the ballot? Two...
By Mike Szymanski | May 15, 2017
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The good, the bad, and the ugly of the LAUSD school board campaign
It’s almost over, and there won’t be another LA Unified School board race until the next presidential election in November 2020. This year’s campaigns have become heated — absurd at times — and so we decided to take a look at some of the highs and lows. Some of this the campaigners may not want...
By Mike Szymanski | May 12, 2017
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If history is any indication, expect voter turnout to be light in LAUSD school board runoff
It’s tough to make predictions of voter turnout in Los Angeles city elections — not even the city clerk does it, but a surefire bet is that despite the most money ever spent on a school board election in U.S. history, there will still be a poor turnout. Past LA Unified elections show that interest...
By Mike Szymanski | May 11, 2017
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LAUSD board race breakdown: Here’s how Kelly Gonez and Imelda Padilla say they are different
Kelly Gonez and Imelda Padilla are two political newcomers who are running for the east San Fernando Valley seat on the LA Unified school board. Both are young Latinas who grew up in the district. LA School Report sat down separately with each of them to ask what differentiates them. In many ways, the District...
By Sarah Favot | May 11, 2017
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Commentary: Why we must vote in Tuesday’s LAUSD school board election
By Evelyn Aleman Macias As a Los Angeles Unified School District parent, school volunteer, and a member of the district’s Parent Advisory Council for the Local Control Funding Formula, I’m often dismayed by the ongoing rift between charter and non-charter school advocates. The issue seems to become even more of a focal point during elections,...
By Guest contributor | May 11, 2017
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Here’s what’s really fueling the nation’s most expensive school board race ever
Los Angeles is days away from the finish line in the most expensive school board race in U.S. history. So it’s all about money. But what money, exactly? The $11.4 million in campaign spending? The $1.6 billion projected deficit for LA Unified? The nearly $1 billion in state funding that has left the district, as...
By Sarah Favot and Mike Szymanski | May 10, 2017